EXCLUSIVE: Richie Hogan tackles the retirement question

Richie Hogan admits a Kilkenny All-Ireland final win could have been the perfect way to call time on his inter-county hurling career.

But ultimately he was on the losing side against Tipperary on Sunday. And significantly, his red card was the big talking point.

The Kilkenny star joined Joe Molloy for a chat about his dismissal and the enusing fallout.

But he also tackled the subject of whether he will retire or not.

"I'll sit down and I'll think about it," he said on the likelihood of carrying on.

"I'll do whatever I can"

"Look, for me, if we'd won on Sunday, it would've been a nice way to maybe sign off.

"For me, I'll do whatever I can to play maybe another year and see how it goes from there."

Referencing the red card, he added that "nobody wants to finish their career like that."

"Absolutely, I walked out in Croke Park the last day in the parade and absolutely said to myself, 'Play your best because you mightn't necessarily be here again'. Even though I work in Croke Park, believe it or not, so I'm there every day. But in terms of being on the pitch, doing what you love, I take every game as if it's my last now," he said.

"But I don't want to finish like that. Maybe it's a good thing. Probably that decision I would have had to make in the winter has probably been made already for me. So I think I owe it to myself to do whatever I can to play again."

Richie Hogan also detailed the physical toll he has had to overcome to even play in recent times.

"I started my warm-up two hours and 15 minutes before the match started. And that's just to be able to actually get on the pitch," he said.

"Between getting work done on my back and on my knee, and other injuries I'm carrying, it's not easy. I haven't been able to train as much as I would have liked."

He also added that he was "patched up" to even be able to play in the final.

You'll be able to watch the full Richie Hogan interview on YouTube.

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